


Now That It's Over

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Foxtrot [116]
Category: Dollhouse, First Monday, Sisters (1991 TV), Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7023880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, Any, <i>I wish that I could find the words to tell / You to politely go fuck yourself / Now that it's over.</i>" John at Nancy's sentencing hearing. Post-series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now That It's Over

John was surprised when Kathy, of all people, came to Nancy’s sentencing hearing with him. He’d only testified briefly at her trial, mostly to establish that she was his handler, that she’d been married to the pure John Sheppard imprint, and then they’d gotten ‘divorced’, and that she’d tried to invade Atlantis and take it over by triggering his handler call-and-response protocols. Most of the witnesses at her trial were other Rossum and Dollhouse employees, ones who’d been prosecuted and could earn some breaks on their sentences by turning state’s evidence, or ones who’d come forward and cut deals, like Topher and DeWitt.  
  
John didn’t want to raise a fuss, sat in the back of the courtroom wearing an innocuous dark suit. He slid over to make room automatically when someone sat on the bench beside him. He jumped when the person beside him put her hand on his.  
  
He turned toward her, and it was Kathy.  
  
“I’m sorry, John,” she said quietly. “I know this has to be hard for you. You loved her -”  
  
“The imprint did, because he was programmed to,” he said. “Had they not interfered with me, interfered with John Sheppard, even had she been who she said she was, he’d never have fallen in love with her.”  
  
_You have a type, and it isn’t not-really-Nancy,_ Joe murmured.  
  
“I’m still sorry,” Kathy said.  
  
John swallowed down his anger. “Thank you for being here.”  
  
_She must feel betrayed too,_ Brian pointed out. _She thought of Nancy as a sister, as a loving wife._  
  
Nancy’s real name wasn’t Nancy, and the family of hers John had met when they’d done the whole ‘meet the parents’ thing was just a cast of other actives. Her fake family had been at the wedding, and John supposed he should have been more curious, about why after the wedding her family had dropped off the face of the Earth, why they spent all holidays and leave time with his family. Her real family consisted of - marines. A grim-faced marine colonel who’d once served alongside Marshall Sumner. A bunch of brothers in full uniform, decorated with impressive chest candy. None of them had served in the SGC. All of them were honorable men. They were arrayed on the front bench just behind the defense counsel table.  
  
The sentencing jury had listened to testimony from various witnesses about Nancy’s role in Rossum, as a handler. They watched video of Nancy’s interrogation on Atlantis, of her attempting to trigger the handler call-and-response in John while he spoke to her. Her admission that she was there to try to gain control of Atlantis for Rossum through John. The AUSA had assured John that he wouldn’t have to testify at sentencing if he didn’t want to.  
  
John still wasn’t sure if he wanted to. Traci was hopping mad, wanted to get into a girl-fight with Nancy and scratch her eyes out. Brian thought it might be cathartic for John, to be able to finally vocalize his feelings about her. Joe wanted to go home.  
  
John’s cell phone buzzed. Text message from the AUSA. Prosecution’s witnesses were almost done. Did John want to testify?  
  
John stared at his phone for a long moment. Then he typed back, _No._  
  
So Nancy’s attorney rose up and presented his side of things, presented a few witnesses on Nancy’s behalf, about how she was a victim of circumstance, swept along by something bigger than her.  
  
No one was really buying it, but the lawyer had a job to do, and he did it well, or so Julian thought. After the last witness, the jury retired to deliberate, and the bailiff told everyone to please wait in the hallway outside the courtroom. The AUSA summoned John to the front of the courtroom via text message. Kathy followed him.  
  
Before he could reach the AUSA, Nancy, who was being herded toward the door that led to the holding cells, called out,  
  
“Foxtrot!”  
  
He paused, turned. “My name,” he said, “is John.”

“Can I talk to you?”  
  
John wanted to shake his head no, but Brian propelled him toward her, and Kathy followed, as if on autopilot.  
  
The four marines who represented not-really-Nancy’s real family rose up, attempted to loom over John.  
  
He’d let a Wraith feed on him. They couldn’t scare him. But he glanced at them, was startled to see how they all looked like Nancy, with the same eyes. They were her real family. The Dollhouse had been careful to choose actives who could pass as Nancy’s family, but right here, this was her real family.  
  
“What do you want, Nancy?”  
  
“To say -”  
  
“You’re sorry?” John kept his voice low, so as not to attract too much attention, but heads had turned when Nancy had hollered his active designation across the room.  
  
“No. John, I -”  
  
“I wish I could find the words to tell you politely to go fuck yourself now that it’s over,” he said, and Kathy’s hand closed on his arm in a familiar warning, _Don’t start an argument here._  
  
The marines growled.  
  
“But you don’t deserve polite from me.” John leaned in and spat, “Go fuck yourself, Nancy.” And he spun on his heel and went to speak to the AUSA. He murmured to Kathy, “Pardon my French.”  
  
She squeezed his arm and said, “She deserved to hear so much worse.”  
  
John closed his eyes and remembered all the times he’d told Nancy he’d loved her, all the times she’d lied to him in return, and how much it had hurt, for their marriage to fall apart. “I just - I’m sorry, Kathy. That you have to see all this.”  
  
“I’m sorry you had to go through it. You’re still family, as far as the girls and I are concerned.” Kathy smiled at him.  
  
The AUSA told John what kind of sentence Nancy was possibly facing, but John didn’t care. He wasn’t going to stick around to hear what the jury decided for her. He wanted to get back to the Mountain. There was more work to be done. He shouldn’t even have come. The least he could do was stop by and say hello to Anna and Clara before he left, though.  
  
He told Kathy, who said she’d arrange for a nice supper at the house, and she stepped away to make some calls to her kitchen staff.  
  
John waited in the hallway, leaning against a wall, trying to catch his breath.  
  
A shadow fell over him, and he straightened up. Marine colonel. John was still a few years from full-bird colonel himself, so he mustered up some deference for the chain of command and respect of rank.  
  
So he was surprised when the man, Colonel Lehane, said, “At ease, son.”  
  
John said nothing. He didn’t know the man, had no grudge against him, couldn’t fault him for loving and supporting his own child.  
  
“Is it true?” Lehane asked. “What they’ve been saying about mind-controlling aliens and life-sucking aliens and everything else?”  
  
“I don’t know what everyone’s been saying,” John said quietly, “but the Goa’uld, the Wraith, and the Ori are real.”  
  
“And you’ve fought them?”  
  
“Still am, sir.”  
  
Lehane studied him for a long moment, then nodded. “Good hunting, son.” And he turned and walked away.  
  
Kathy returned, put a gentle hand on John’s arm. “Are you all right?”  
  
“Fine,” he said. “What’s for supper?”  
  
She smiled. “A surprise. Let’s go pick up the girls from school. They’ll be excited to see you.”  
  
John smiled back at her and followed her out of the courthouse, into the sunlight, and decided to forget all about the woman who’d called herself Nancy.


End file.
